Event Details

The Long Island Buddhist Meditation Center would warmly invite you to participate in our Vesak program commencing at 9.00 A.M. on Sunday May 21st, 2017.
Vesak (Buddha's

Event Details

The Long Island Buddhist Meditation Center would warmly invite you to participate in our Vesak program commencing at 9.00 A.M. on Sunday May 21st, 2017.

Vesak (Buddha’s Day) is traditionally a Buddhist holiday which is celebrated by commemorating the full moon day of May on which day the Siddhartha Gotama Buddha is reported to have been born, achieved his Enlightenment, and passed away. Nowadays, it is widely celebrated across many cultures subscribing to Buddhism such as Sinhalese, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. On this day devotees flock to temples and monasteries, so as to practice generosity by giving of food and requisites to monks and those in need, practice morality and meditation, and listen to sermons on the Dhamma which are the preaching of Buddha.

We also use the day of Vesak to recollect the qualities of the Triple Gem; the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha:

The Buddha indeed is the Blessed One: worthy, fully enlightened by his own effort, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, well-gone, knower of the world, supreme trainer of persons to be tamed, teacher of divine beings and humans, awakened, and blessed.

Well expounded is the Dhamma (teaching) by the Blessed One: directly visible, true in all times (timeless: or Akalika), calling one to come and see, leading onward, able to be realized by the wise

The order of the Blessed One’s disciples who is practicing well is the Sanga. The Sanga is of upright conduct. The Sanga have entered the right path. The Sanga is practicing Dhamma correctly; that is, the four pairs of persons; the eight kinds of individuals. The order of the Blessed One’s disciples is worthy of offerings and hospitality, worthy of gifts and spiritual salutation, the supreme field of merit for the world.

By recollecting these wondrous qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, we establish and reaffirm our confidence in them, which helps us to keep on a path of wholesome qualities (non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion) and avoid the path of unwholesomeness (greed, hatred, delusion). This again helps us to be on the Noble Eightfold Path, so that we too may achieve what the Buddha achieved on the full moon day of the month of May, some 2600 years ago.